This is going to be a short one, I am currently in the internet cafe in our hostel in Christchurch, I fell in love with this city and the south island in general. It took us a very long time to get down here, a good two days straight of travelling. The ferry in itself was three hours long. But it was HUGE and there was a polynesian high school group singing maori songs, which kept me entertained. The south island really is beautiful. The first place we stayed was Kaikoura, it is right on the ocean and bordered by mountains. It is one of the most visited places in New Zealand because there is a ton of marine mammal tourism, which is what we spent the weekend learning about. We were supposed to swim with the dolphins but the weather was too shitty. Hanna and I are planning to go back after the program is over because the man at the Marae that we were staying at said he could hook us up with a free whale watching tour.
Staying at the Marae was unexplainably amazing. Everything about it was a new cultural experinence. We learned a lot about the maori culture and all the things that they find the most important. We slept in the Wharanui, which is the ancestors house and it had the most beautiful intricate designs on it. We weren't allowed to take pictures of it, so I will just have to remember and try and tell you all about it when I get home. I think that by far it was the best place we have stayed. We had a talent show at the end, and I most definitely did some interpretive dancing (good ol' rick would have been so proud)
we had the weekend off and spent it in Christchurch. We went to a beautiful art market, where of course I spent too much money... and I drank and ate me life away. I really will return a fatty. We got to go to the Auckland/Canterbury rugby game which was awesome, and I actually got to learn how rugby works. And that night the All Blacks were playing, so a bunch of us went out to a bar got a little shwasted and proceeded to dance until 4 am at an irish pub... oh good times.
we are off today to cragieburn, and I don't know what we are doing there. All I know is we might be snowed in at a cabin in the middle of nowhere. LOVE IT. (the south island is still a bit nippy).
Well, that was longer than I thought.
so tight.
miss you
love you
write somewhat in the near future.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Off I Go!
Tomorrow I head out on my adventure to the south island. We will be driving for about 10 hours (gahhhhhh) and then hopping on a three hour ferry ride... but it will all be worth it because then I get to go and explore the beautiful and glorious south island. We were told that it is going to be QUITE cold down there, so I got an authentic new zealand wool sweater that is what my professors call a genuine 'kiwi' thing. It is ridiculous and heavy and horrible clashing colors, but everyone is jealous of it... haha, and that is why I absolutely love this place.
This week was inspiring for me. The topic was sustainability at home, and our instructor Bruce, who is getting his PhD in environmental education so we focused on that a lot. We took a beautiful thirty minute hike up in the local park that is a five minute drive away, and we talked about what sustainability meant to us and how it affected our lives... all of this was while we sat in the sun on a grassy hill overlooking the ocean and green pastures. I still can't get over how amazing it is to learn in an environment like this. I don't know what I will do when I'm stuck in a classroom again. We shall see how I deal with it. It was a good week because it made me realize that I really want to focus on the social issues that are tied with the environment rather than the science aspect. I suppose that isn't an important thing to mention, but it is awesome when my future plans are further cemented in my wee little brain.
We got to visit the marae this week which was an amazingly spiritual experience. The local marae is a 2 minute walk down the road, so we all got dressed up (and seeing these boys dressed up is a funny and beautiful thing because we are all usually disgusting and beyond underdressed) and went for the afternoon. There are tons of traditions that are followed when you visit the marae, and two of our leaders, Jono and Rhia are fluent in Maori and basically belong to the local marae, so we took time to practice how we entered and what we were supposed to do when we got in there. Before you enter the gate you are supposed to pause and think about those that matter and those who have died. Rhia said, 'think about home', and I instantly began getting teary eyed. I think it was then that I realized what I was doing and where I was and how lucky I was to be forming this family and this amazing bond with the country and with the people in it. And I started missing home. I don't really know what it was, but I think being in a special place like that just brings up all sorts of emotions. At least for me. Anyways, we sang songs and listened to them give a speech in maori and got to see their ancestoral home, which was a pretty cool experience. They fed us food (I eat SOOO much food here it is insane, I will come home a fatty... I just made peanut butter cookies with my friend andrew for my friend colby who is jewish and just got done fasting, and I think I ate about half the dough plus 3 cookies... just an example of how much I eat here ALL THE TIME) and we got to just hang out. It was pretty awesome.
wow I talked about nothing important for a long time. I just wrote a paper so perhaps I am in rambling mode. WHO knows.
I am going to post more pictures cause I have some time.
I will write when I get back from the south island!!
This week was inspiring for me. The topic was sustainability at home, and our instructor Bruce, who is getting his PhD in environmental education so we focused on that a lot. We took a beautiful thirty minute hike up in the local park that is a five minute drive away, and we talked about what sustainability meant to us and how it affected our lives... all of this was while we sat in the sun on a grassy hill overlooking the ocean and green pastures. I still can't get over how amazing it is to learn in an environment like this. I don't know what I will do when I'm stuck in a classroom again. We shall see how I deal with it. It was a good week because it made me realize that I really want to focus on the social issues that are tied with the environment rather than the science aspect. I suppose that isn't an important thing to mention, but it is awesome when my future plans are further cemented in my wee little brain.
We got to visit the marae this week which was an amazingly spiritual experience. The local marae is a 2 minute walk down the road, so we all got dressed up (and seeing these boys dressed up is a funny and beautiful thing because we are all usually disgusting and beyond underdressed) and went for the afternoon. There are tons of traditions that are followed when you visit the marae, and two of our leaders, Jono and Rhia are fluent in Maori and basically belong to the local marae, so we took time to practice how we entered and what we were supposed to do when we got in there. Before you enter the gate you are supposed to pause and think about those that matter and those who have died. Rhia said, 'think about home', and I instantly began getting teary eyed. I think it was then that I realized what I was doing and where I was and how lucky I was to be forming this family and this amazing bond with the country and with the people in it. And I started missing home. I don't really know what it was, but I think being in a special place like that just brings up all sorts of emotions. At least for me. Anyways, we sang songs and listened to them give a speech in maori and got to see their ancestoral home, which was a pretty cool experience. They fed us food (I eat SOOO much food here it is insane, I will come home a fatty... I just made peanut butter cookies with my friend andrew for my friend colby who is jewish and just got done fasting, and I think I ate about half the dough plus 3 cookies... just an example of how much I eat here ALL THE TIME) and we got to just hang out. It was pretty awesome.
wow I talked about nothing important for a long time. I just wrote a paper so perhaps I am in rambling mode. WHO knows.
I am going to post more pictures cause I have some time.
I will write when I get back from the south island!!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
A little like Kerouac
This country is dressed in green, and has decided to wreak havoc on my legs. (more on that later).
Lets start with last weekend, with the trip to Auckland. Eight of us rented two cars, and took the hairpin turned back roads to the largest city in the entire country (which hosts only 4.5 million people... nothin' honey). Tim was our designated driver, and remained calm cool and collected as we tried to navigate a very foreign country while driving on the other side of the road. I was of no help, seeing as I have the directional sense of a gnat. A few of us spent the better part of the day shopping (you'd be proud, I didn't buy anything) and then we all met up for dinner at this random hole in the wall pizza place that had delicious pizza, cheap drinks and a really good atmosphere. The All Blacks were playing that night, so we went to the irish pub and got to hear some good live music. Everyone I am travelling with loves beer, so they all laughed at me as I sipped on my white wine. What can I say, beer isn't my thing. But we decided to wander around the city and ended up by the wharf in a club dancing to Sweet Home Alabama with 30 year olds.. It was slightly ridiculous. We ended up back at the irish pub where we were all squeezed in like sardines as everyone had their eyes glued to the tv screen watching their beloved rugby team. I have NO idea how rugby works, so some nice Australian coached me through it, but I still have no idea how it really works. Oh well. Their rugby team does a Haka before every game, which is a Maori ritual, and one of the most awesome and intimidating things I've seen. Check it out if you can. The next day we went to this beautiful black sand beach on the coast... it was pouring rain but we explored and it made me fall more and more in love with the coast, the ocean and the country.
SOOO the weekend was awesome, and then we left on our first 'field' trip to Opoture on Tuesday. It was an hour north of where we are staying, and is located on the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed in this AMAZING hostel overlooking the estuary that became our study focus for the week. We have to map the vegetation in the estuary and do specialized group projects on certain issues concerning the estuary. But we spent most of the week walking around exploring or kayaking. But of course, in order to kayak appropriately we had to do some training. I was part of the lucky group that got to get up at 5:30 in the morning to kayak. It was actually worth it because we got to see the sign rise over the ocean, which was absolutely stunning. The bad thing was that we then had to go swimming in the frigid water. We had to perform a rescue, so once you had to rescue and once you had to flip your kayak over and show that you could get back in. Lets just say I wore my wool long underware in the water and still managed to shout profane words at my professor.
oops.
as for the legs... it seems that sand fleas and other sorts of fun bugs have decided to attack my lower legs. I honestly look like I have the chicken pox. it is painful and I have to literally bite my lip to stop from itching constantly. ack.
it was still an awesome experience that I wouldn't change for the world. We got to kayak and hike and didn't have one lecture inside. The learning environment is unlike anything I have ever done, and I can't get enough of it. The work is very challenging, but we all work on it together and I am learning a TON. One of our assignments involved building a sandcastle off of a topography map. So we got to spend an hour on the beach in the sun building an 'island'.
it doesn't get any better than that.
For the weekend all of us got dropped off in a surfer town 10 minutes from opoture. The first night 11 of us stayed in the local hostel and went out to explore the 'night' life of the deserted-in-the-winter town. We went to the only dance club, only to find we were the only patrons, so we made a fool of ourselves on the dance floor. Finally people showed up, but there were only about 10 of them... it was silly and fun, but the BEST part was when we went to the maori karaokee bar... where we were the only ones there besides the owners and their children. We were all pretty shwasted (as my friend quincy calls it) by that point, so we sang horrible american songs as loud as we could and really made complete asses of ourselves, but it was all in good fun.
A few of the people had hitched up north the day before (hitching is safe and done often in NZ) so Hanna and I decided to give it a whirl. It was amazing how friendly and awesome everyone was. It took us about five minutes to get the first ride, and we were going about an hour up north and it only took us fifteen minutes past an hour to get to our destination. Hitching was an AMAZING way to see the country and meet some new zealanders, so parents of mine... please don't panic. It is safe and Hanna and I made up a plan of attacking anyone with bug spray if sketchy things went down. I am glad I got the chance and had such a wonderful time doing it. We met up with the other kids at the hot water beach (which is a beach that at low tide you can dig holes in the sand and create little hot tubs for yourself because of the volcanoes that are beneath the beach.. or something like that) where we camped for the night. It was beautiful this weekend, so the first time in awhile I wasn't cold. It was a glorious thing.
I have a ton of school work to do this week, and then we leave for the south island!!
I will update asap, as for pictures... it might be awhile, it takes about 10 hours to load one picture, so you will all just have to wait until I have the energy and the time to do that.
miss you and love you all.
Lets start with last weekend, with the trip to Auckland. Eight of us rented two cars, and took the hairpin turned back roads to the largest city in the entire country (which hosts only 4.5 million people... nothin' honey). Tim was our designated driver, and remained calm cool and collected as we tried to navigate a very foreign country while driving on the other side of the road. I was of no help, seeing as I have the directional sense of a gnat. A few of us spent the better part of the day shopping (you'd be proud, I didn't buy anything) and then we all met up for dinner at this random hole in the wall pizza place that had delicious pizza, cheap drinks and a really good atmosphere. The All Blacks were playing that night, so we went to the irish pub and got to hear some good live music. Everyone I am travelling with loves beer, so they all laughed at me as I sipped on my white wine. What can I say, beer isn't my thing. But we decided to wander around the city and ended up by the wharf in a club dancing to Sweet Home Alabama with 30 year olds.. It was slightly ridiculous. We ended up back at the irish pub where we were all squeezed in like sardines as everyone had their eyes glued to the tv screen watching their beloved rugby team. I have NO idea how rugby works, so some nice Australian coached me through it, but I still have no idea how it really works. Oh well. Their rugby team does a Haka before every game, which is a Maori ritual, and one of the most awesome and intimidating things I've seen. Check it out if you can. The next day we went to this beautiful black sand beach on the coast... it was pouring rain but we explored and it made me fall more and more in love with the coast, the ocean and the country.
SOOO the weekend was awesome, and then we left on our first 'field' trip to Opoture on Tuesday. It was an hour north of where we are staying, and is located on the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed in this AMAZING hostel overlooking the estuary that became our study focus for the week. We have to map the vegetation in the estuary and do specialized group projects on certain issues concerning the estuary. But we spent most of the week walking around exploring or kayaking. But of course, in order to kayak appropriately we had to do some training. I was part of the lucky group that got to get up at 5:30 in the morning to kayak. It was actually worth it because we got to see the sign rise over the ocean, which was absolutely stunning. The bad thing was that we then had to go swimming in the frigid water. We had to perform a rescue, so once you had to rescue and once you had to flip your kayak over and show that you could get back in. Lets just say I wore my wool long underware in the water and still managed to shout profane words at my professor.
oops.
as for the legs... it seems that sand fleas and other sorts of fun bugs have decided to attack my lower legs. I honestly look like I have the chicken pox. it is painful and I have to literally bite my lip to stop from itching constantly. ack.
it was still an awesome experience that I wouldn't change for the world. We got to kayak and hike and didn't have one lecture inside. The learning environment is unlike anything I have ever done, and I can't get enough of it. The work is very challenging, but we all work on it together and I am learning a TON. One of our assignments involved building a sandcastle off of a topography map. So we got to spend an hour on the beach in the sun building an 'island'.
it doesn't get any better than that.
For the weekend all of us got dropped off in a surfer town 10 minutes from opoture. The first night 11 of us stayed in the local hostel and went out to explore the 'night' life of the deserted-in-the-winter town. We went to the only dance club, only to find we were the only patrons, so we made a fool of ourselves on the dance floor. Finally people showed up, but there were only about 10 of them... it was silly and fun, but the BEST part was when we went to the maori karaokee bar... where we were the only ones there besides the owners and their children. We were all pretty shwasted (as my friend quincy calls it) by that point, so we sang horrible american songs as loud as we could and really made complete asses of ourselves, but it was all in good fun.
A few of the people had hitched up north the day before (hitching is safe and done often in NZ) so Hanna and I decided to give it a whirl. It was amazing how friendly and awesome everyone was. It took us about five minutes to get the first ride, and we were going about an hour up north and it only took us fifteen minutes past an hour to get to our destination. Hitching was an AMAZING way to see the country and meet some new zealanders, so parents of mine... please don't panic. It is safe and Hanna and I made up a plan of attacking anyone with bug spray if sketchy things went down. I am glad I got the chance and had such a wonderful time doing it. We met up with the other kids at the hot water beach (which is a beach that at low tide you can dig holes in the sand and create little hot tubs for yourself because of the volcanoes that are beneath the beach.. or something like that) where we camped for the night. It was beautiful this weekend, so the first time in awhile I wasn't cold. It was a glorious thing.
I have a ton of school work to do this week, and then we leave for the south island!!
I will update asap, as for pictures... it might be awhile, it takes about 10 hours to load one picture, so you will all just have to wait until I have the energy and the time to do that.
miss you and love you all.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
The Pinnacles and much much more
I am going to try and update this as much as I can before we start getting really busy and began to galvant across the land. This week is our 'lecture' time, so we are spending a lot of time on campus. Mind you our campus is a commune style like community so we spend our times gardening and our lectures take place in the same place we eat all of our meals.
I am spending around 10 hours a day with the same 22 people, and suprisingly I am only growing to love them more. This past weekend we took a 'tramp' up to the pinnacles hut in the coromandel peninsula. It was the first 'assignment' of the semester. We had to observe the patterns in the vegetation and take intensive field notes... working on those science skills that are pretty rusty. It was so beautiful; and we ended up hiking for about seven hours the first day. Most of the trail was made up of stairs, and we were all amazed about how someone took the time to create a stairway the literally went up a face of a steep mountain side. The steps were really tall, so those ladies with the small legs had a rough time climbing. When it got dark the stars were so bright and the southern cross was right above our heads. I have never seen stars that clear, and we all sat outside and snuggled (it was about 40 degrees).
We got up at 5:15 the next morning to do a 'sunrise' hike... turns out it wasn't sunny in the slightest, and I survived an epic wind and rain storm. Of course, forgetting that rain=soaked clothing, I left my rain gear behind and all the warm clothing I had for the hike down was completely soaked. But even though the weather was miserable, the climb was worth it. When else can I say that I climbed a pinnacle in New Zealand at 5:15 in the morning during a storm?? My friend Hanna and I snuggled at the top while the other crazy kids climbed around and almost got knocked over by the wind. The climb up involved ladders and scrambling up rocks like mountain goats, so the wet and slippery terrain down was a bit sketchy, but I made it down alive. I didn't get warm until we got back to home base, but it was all so amazing I just didn't care.
When we got back we were informed we got the night off, which meant alcohol... a few of us hadn't picked up any booze in town, so we walked an hour or so to the nearest pub to purchase some beverages. I felt slightly pathetic, but it was well worth it. We all just chilled in the whareki (the kitchen) and listened to tunes and bonded. I am getting to know these people better and we are all getting along beautifully, and already I feel at home. These people will be another family when the fifteen weeks are over. The rugby world cup started last week so we are planning to attend a rugby game and watch the world cup at the pub. I also think that I am going to splurge and go skydiving into Hobbiton with some people, and we are spending a long weekend in Auckland to celebrate Laura's birthday. HURRAH!!
I guess I could keep writing and give more and more details, but that would take forever and there is just too much about this place that I love. The teaching style is fantastic and completely unconventional, and we spend a large majority of the time building our community, we play soccer and volleyball and we cook and eat all of our meals together. Now I know why living in a commune would be so fabulous. ALSO, Rhia, the educational director has a dog, Scamper, so I really do feel at home here. Well, I am off to bed! Gotta get up at 6 to watch the sunrise and go on my morning run!! More later!!
I am spending around 10 hours a day with the same 22 people, and suprisingly I am only growing to love them more. This past weekend we took a 'tramp' up to the pinnacles hut in the coromandel peninsula. It was the first 'assignment' of the semester. We had to observe the patterns in the vegetation and take intensive field notes... working on those science skills that are pretty rusty. It was so beautiful; and we ended up hiking for about seven hours the first day. Most of the trail was made up of stairs, and we were all amazed about how someone took the time to create a stairway the literally went up a face of a steep mountain side. The steps were really tall, so those ladies with the small legs had a rough time climbing. When it got dark the stars were so bright and the southern cross was right above our heads. I have never seen stars that clear, and we all sat outside and snuggled (it was about 40 degrees).
We got up at 5:15 the next morning to do a 'sunrise' hike... turns out it wasn't sunny in the slightest, and I survived an epic wind and rain storm. Of course, forgetting that rain=soaked clothing, I left my rain gear behind and all the warm clothing I had for the hike down was completely soaked. But even though the weather was miserable, the climb was worth it. When else can I say that I climbed a pinnacle in New Zealand at 5:15 in the morning during a storm?? My friend Hanna and I snuggled at the top while the other crazy kids climbed around and almost got knocked over by the wind. The climb up involved ladders and scrambling up rocks like mountain goats, so the wet and slippery terrain down was a bit sketchy, but I made it down alive. I didn't get warm until we got back to home base, but it was all so amazing I just didn't care.
When we got back we were informed we got the night off, which meant alcohol... a few of us hadn't picked up any booze in town, so we walked an hour or so to the nearest pub to purchase some beverages. I felt slightly pathetic, but it was well worth it. We all just chilled in the whareki (the kitchen) and listened to tunes and bonded. I am getting to know these people better and we are all getting along beautifully, and already I feel at home. These people will be another family when the fifteen weeks are over. The rugby world cup started last week so we are planning to attend a rugby game and watch the world cup at the pub. I also think that I am going to splurge and go skydiving into Hobbiton with some people, and we are spending a long weekend in Auckland to celebrate Laura's birthday. HURRAH!!
I guess I could keep writing and give more and more details, but that would take forever and there is just too much about this place that I love. The teaching style is fantastic and completely unconventional, and we spend a large majority of the time building our community, we play soccer and volleyball and we cook and eat all of our meals together. Now I know why living in a commune would be so fabulous. ALSO, Rhia, the educational director has a dog, Scamper, so I really do feel at home here. Well, I am off to bed! Gotta get up at 6 to watch the sunrise and go on my morning run!! More later!!
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